That is not to say that citizens should not get involved with
the FERC regulatory process. You should, to get on record. You just have
to also act outside the FERC process on the local municipality level to
zone it out, or make it too expensive for the operator.

The ideal way to stop pipelines is by establishing a Community
Bill of Rights that essentially “zones out” this kind of
activity, or restricts it and establishes safety standards and set-backs
in such a way that it is no longer economically worthwhile for an operator
to build. The concept of a Community Bill of Rights has been championed byCELDF (the Community
Environmental Legal Defense Fund), a non-profit, public interest law firm
providing free and affordable legal services to communities facing threats
to their local environment and quality of life. CELDF has assisted more
than 150 communities across the country to establish such ordinances.

Myself, along with other members of the Shale Justice
Coalition are now working with communities along the 176-mile path of
the proposed Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Project by Williams Midstream. So
far, we’ve gotten three municipalities to begin enacting community
bill of rights ordinances.

Now, the industry, and most local solicitors, will claim that these ordinances “will be challenged, inspire law suits, and be overturned,” however, in the communities in PA, TX, LA, where Community Bills of Rights have been established, this has not happened. The reason is that the ordinance brings into question “corporate personhood:” Under the Constitution all people [persons] are equal under the law, which means that no “person” can claim to have more rights than another, and the rights of one can not take precedent over the rights of another. The legal challenge to corporate personhood would mean that if any corporation were indeed a “person,” then they would have to explain why they believe that they have more rights, or why their rights should matter more than actual citizens.

And that is a can of worms that industry does NOT want to risk opening.